When the “blogging revolution” first began, blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. One could easily tell the difference between the two.
Then the WordPress CMS came along and everything changed. Now, it’s becoming more and more difficult to tell blogs and websites apart. Not so much in terms of what the sites are being used for, but in terms of website design and also being able to tell what’s under the surface.
(It’s Getting Harder To Tell Websites Built With Web Development Tools Vs ‘Blogging’ Software!)
For website owners, understanding the difference between a Content Management System tool like WordPress and other website-building tools is huge, not so much in terms of the technical differences, but more importantly, in terms of the things that matter to most website owners, such as web development costs, ease of use, ability to keep the site up-to-date, managing web content, etc.
Think about this …
Which of the options below would you choose?
A) An eye-catching, professional-looking website that is actually expensive to build, or
B) The same eye-catching, professional-looking website, but at a cost that turns out to be significantly less than the cost of getting site ”A” built.
If you picked web site ”B” above, then you need to know more about the benefits of using WordPress, why WordPress can give you an eye-catching website that will usually turn out to be far less expensive to build than websites which use a web building application … and how to tell these apart!
WordPress is the world’s leading online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a powerful CMS application suitable for small, medium and even large businesses.
Whether your reason for having a web site is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a newbie with no technical skills to use and manage, and offers an array of helpful add-ons that make your website extremely effective in terms of getting your content published and indexed by search engines, promoting visitor interaction, generating business leads and sales, enhancing your site’s capabilities, etc.
With almost one in every five websites around the world currently being powered by WordPress, chances are that if you already own a website, yours is also a WordPress site.
And if you don’t have a website yet, or are thinking of getting one built, then wouldn’t it be great to be able to show your web developer an existing site with the design and layout that you like, know that it was built with WordPress and that you can, therefore, get a similar site built for your business for very little cost?
Is My Website Built Using WordPress? How To Tell
Do you need to know if a website is powered by WordPress? Maybe you’ve come to our site because you’ve read about all of the great benefits of using WordPress, and you’re now wondering if your site was built using WordPress, or some other content management system.
Also, have you ever looked at a competitor’s website and wondered what they’re doing to try and get better results online?
Knowing if your competitor’s site is built with WordPress can tell you a few things about their strategies and methods, such as what themes or plugins they are using.
Here are a number of methods you can use to quickly tell if sites are powered WordPress:
View Your Page Source Code
If you know how to view the source code of a web page (e.g. Firefox Menu > Web Developer > Page Source if using Firefox, or Google Menu > More Tools > View Source if using Google Chrome), you can look for obvious telltale footprints that the site was built with WordPress …
(How to view your web page source code in the Firefox browser)
Let’s say that you are surfing the web and you come across a site that you like, and you would like to know if the site uses WordPress …
First, bring up the site’s source code on your screen, using the methods described above.
In the source code, you can search for “wp-content” either by scanning the code visually …
Or using the browser’s “Find” function …
(Use Firefox’s ‘Find’ function)
This will tell you if the site was built using WordPress or not.
Note: If you do not see the words “wp-content” in the source code, it does not mean that this is not a WordPress site.
There are other ways to find out if the site runs on WordPress, as we will soon be discussing.
As the focus of this article is to try and help non-technical users, however, below you will find a number of easy methods you can use to check if your site is built using WordPress other than viewing the source code.
Ask Your Website Developer
While this may seem like the most obvious thing to do, a number of web development agencies, for whatever reason, will build clients a website and not tell them it’s WordPress.
If you paid a website developer or got somebody else to build you a website, just ask your developer or whoever built your site if the web site was built with WordPress.
That was simple, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t get in touch with the person who looks after your website, or what if you’ve come across a site that you really like while surfing online and would like to know if the site was built with WordPress?
Check Below Footer
If the site uses a WordPress theme and the them template has not been modified, you can often find a “Proudly powered by WordPress” notice shown below the footer section of the site …
(Proudly Powered by WordPress)
If the simple methods above haven’t helped you, here are some other ways of telling whether a website runs on WordPress or not …
Sites That Tell You If A Website Runs On WordPress
Here are a couple of online applications that will tell you if the website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
Is It WP
(Is It WordPress?)
Is It WP? is a free tool that can tell you very quickly if a site runs on WordPress or not.
Using this site is super simple. Just enter the URL of the website into the URL field and click the button next to it.
The tool will then search through the URL code and tell you if the site was built using WordPress, and if so, which version of WordPress it is currently using …
If the web site is not a WP site, you will get a message like the one below …
To use this tool, go here:
Advanced WP Theme Checker by Satori
(WordPress Theme Detector)
WordPress Theme Detector by Satori Studio is a free tool that can help determine whether or not a website uses WordPress as its CMS engine; it will also tell you which theme the site is using and provide a link to the theme’s official page.
To use this tool, paste the URL of a web page (it doesn’t have to be the home page) into the ‘Enter website URL’ field and click on the ‘What WordPress theme is that?’ button …
(Enter website URL and click the button)
The Detector will automatically scan the website and output its theme information …
(WordPress Theme Detector displays theme results)
If a website is built with WordPress but the theme is too customized to contain any traces of its origins, the Detector will still let you know it’s a WP site by outputting a message on the right.
(Modified WordPress theme message)
If the website is not using WordPress at all, the tool will also let you know …
(This website is not WordPress)
You can try the Detector yourself by visiting this link:
Wappalyzer
(Wappalyzer.com)
If you use a browser like Firefox or Chrome and want to be able to know if the sites that you are visiting are powered by WordPress, then Wappalyzer is a very useful extension to add to your web browser.
Wappalyzer helps you identify what type of software is installed in the sites you are visiting.
According to their website …
“Wappalyzer is a browser extension that uncovers the technologies used on websites. It detects content management systems, eCommerce platforms, web servers, JavaScript frameworks, analytics tools and many more.”
Wappalyzer is also an easy web browser add-on to install and use.
After installing the Wappalyzer add-on on your web browser, icons will appear in your web browser menu allowing you to see which technologies are installed on the sites you visit …
If you see the WordPress icon showing on your browser menu (as shown in the screenshot above), then the site uses WordPress.
(This is a WordPress site!)
Visit the website here:
SpyBar
(SpyBar – Browser Addon For WordPress)
SpyBar is a browser addon that lets you ‘reverse engineer’ any WordPress site you visit and see which WordPress plugins and themes are being used, right inside your web browser …
(SpyBar – Discover WordPress Plugins And Themes Used By Your Competitors)
SpyBar can be installed as a browser extension on Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox and is compatible with PC and Mac.
To download or learn more about SpyBar, go here:
Plugin Sniper
(Plugin Sniper – Find out what plugins a WordPress site is using)
Plugin Sniper lets you find out what plugins a WordPress site is using. This is a useful tool if you want to know what WordPress plugins are being used by your competitors.
Plugin Sniper is also a useful tool for researching what kinds of plugins businesses in certain niches are using …
(Search WordPress sites by categories and location)
To download or learn more about Plugin Sniper, visit the site below:
I hope that you have found the above tutorial useful.
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